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Smith & Nephew Hull leads More Together promoting health, building teams and supporting local charities

In October 2016, Smith & Nephew in Hull launched a city-wide charity initiative - “More Together”. Inspired by the success of a charity event the previous summer, More Together aimed to bring together companies large and small from Hull and the surrounding region to raise literally more together, meaning tens of thousands of pounds for local charities in 2017.

Taking place during the summer of 2017, the challenge consisted of three sponsored events; walking the Yorkshire Three Peaks hike, taking part in ‘Total Warrior’, a challenging obstacle race, and a Humber Bridge Family Fun Walk.

The idea of combining more than one event – and taking it city-wide in an attempt to raise as much money for charity as possible, came from Katie McGrory, Global Supply Chain, and Simon Ansell, Operational Quality Team Leader at Smith & Nephew.

“After seeing first-hand the impact we had on our chosen charities and the sense of pride our Smith & Nephew team felt last year, we were all determined to go bigger and better in 2017 to continue making a difference for those in our community.” said Simon.

“I believe we can all go that extra mile to support more charities and we have had a really positive response from both the business community in Hull and our Smith & Nephew senior leadership team. Hopefully this initiative will create a unique legacy for years to come.”

Katie and Simon were eager to choose three challenges requiring differing levels of physical ability to enable as many employees as possible to get involved, promoting fitness, wellbeing and a sense of pride, whilst raising substantial amounts of sponsorship money for local charities.

In June, over 600 participants took part in the Yorkshire Three Peak Challenge, a 24 mile hike with over 5000 feet of ascent. A fortnight later, nearly 400 took on the Total Warrior challenge braving the mud, ice and electric shocks whilst setting a new record for the largest team in history. The final event saw local MP, Emma Hardy officially set off nearly 400 people as they walked across the Humber Bridge before enjoying a Family Fun Day with rides, food and amusements.

“It has been a real collective effort from everyone, not just during the challenges but in the event organisation and the logistical support from other businesses involved” said Katie.

“One of the aims of this initiative was to build relationships right across the city – over 1000 employees taking part in the challenges speaks for itself. It shows what can be achieved when you do more together.”

More Together came at a time when the city of Hull is celebrating a transformative year as UK City of Culture; and Smith & Nephew, as a Major Partner, is keen to build on the spirit of this, not only for 2017 but beyond, contributing to the legacy for the city.

The initiative built new relationships right across the city at all levels whilst improving wellbeing and team building inside and across organisations – helping to make these companies, and Hull, a great place to work.